Sport Briefs

AGENCIES

■ BADMINTON

Taiwan to host finals

Taiwan is to host the next Super Series finals, the climax of badminton’s 12-leg Super Series circuit. Staged in Malaysia for the last two years, the finals feature the top eight-ranked players in the Super Series standings in all five of badminton’s events — men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles. The last Super Series tournament of the year is in Hong Kong in December. The Taiwan finals will be staged from Jan. 5 to Jan. 9. “With so many top players in the event, fans are in for some amazing badminton,” Taiwan’s badminton association secretary-general Tsai Hung-Peng said in a statement on Monday.

■ SUMO

Wrestlers to get iPads

Japan’s ancient sport of sumo is embracing the latest technology, with its governing body set to distribute Apple’s iPad to wrestlers who often struggle with smaller cellphone keypads due to their giant hands. The sumo association said it will hand out iPads to Japan’s 51 “stables,” or the clubs the wrestlers belong to, with the aim of improving communication among the roly-poly grapplers after some in the past had missed information sent by fax or telephone. “We will hand out the newest iPads to all the sumo stables to swiftly communicate what we need to,” association vice chairman Hiroyoshi Murayama said. The iPad tablet PC was likely chosen because many stable masters do not use computers and wrestlers are not good at punching in messages on their mobile phones with their big hands, Jiji news agency said.

■ BASKETBALL

Jose Calderon ruled out

Spanish playmaker Jose Manuel Calderon has been ruled out of the world championships starting in Turkey this weekend because of injury, the Spanish basketball federation confirmed on Monday. Calderon, who plays for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, suffered a torn muscle in his left leg during a warm-up game against the US in Madrid on Sunday night. He will be replaced by Raul Lopez. Calderon, 28, was also forced to miss last year’s European championships, which Spain won, because of injury. Spain play their opening match on Saturday against France in a group which also includes Lithuania, New Zealand, Canada and Lebanon.

■ FORMULA ONE

Hamilton avoids conviction

Formula One star Lewis Hamilton has been fined A$500 (US$445) and avoided conviction for doing a burnout outside the Australian Grand Prix circuit in March. Hamilton, 25, did not appear at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court yesterday. His lawyer, Sandip Mukerjea, said Hamilton was overseas, but he would plead guilty to the charge of improper use of a motor vehicle. Mukerjea said Hamilton had publicly apologized over the incident and suffered “embarrassment, humiliation and distress” after he was criticized in the media.

■ SOCCER

Cavalieri moves to Cesena

Liverpool goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri has completed his move to Serie A newcomers Cesena, the English Premier League club announced on Monday. The Brazilian was signed by former Reds manager Rafael Benitez from Palmeiras in July 2008. However, he was never more than back-up to first-choice Jose Reina and made just 10 appearances for the first team. The arrival last week of Middlesbrough’s Brad Jones, who qualifies as a “homegrown” player despite being an Australia international, effectively signaled the end of Cavalieri’s Anfield career.

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